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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Writer's Luck

I wrote on the MiG blog about how to make your writing presentation go smoothly. Check it out!

You see, yesterday, I presented at our Korea chapter's SCBWI meeting on using technology to help you network and promote yourself as a writer. We had such a great time sharing ideas.

But the most important thing I emphasized to the group is my old saying I like to tell my students:

Luck= preparation + opportunity.

In writer language, it means: go and write the most amazing, fantastic novel and then when you see an agent post on twitter or a blog that they are excepting submissions in the very genre that you write, you're ready to seize that opportunity.

So call luck, call it good fortune, call it whatever you like. But I like to call it Prepared for the Opportunity.

So if you had Writer's Luck, what would be your One Wish?

By the way, I thought the book above Just One Wish by Janette Rallison was fitting for this post. Excellent and halarious story dealing with tough issues. Recommended.

I agree. When I was growing up, my dad always said I had a horseshoe up my butt, because things seemed to work out for me :). But I know (and he knows) I just made good choices and worked hard! (and sometimes good timing or good contacts etc.) I do wish that this hard work and the shiny horseshoe brings me a publishing contract one day!

Christina,Great post on presentations. I'm also over-equipped in case of technology failure. I have my slide show on a thumb disk, my slide show with autoplayer on disk, hard copies of my slides, my text in big letters as prose, samples of stuff I talk about to hold up, etc.

The computer went down at my last presentation, and I was so glad to have my slides on hard copy--they were like little cue cards.